"The mother, long ago. 'Tis not too well done. It absorbs mademoiselle
also, but that is because 'tis true. When I saw that effect I told her
of a story like it, yet different, and also seeming true, in this old
magazine. And when I began to tell it she said, 'It _is_ true! My
Vermont _grand'mère_ wrote that! It happened to her!'"

"How queer! And, Landry, I see the connection. Your magazine being one
of a set, you couldn't let her read it anywhere but here."

"I have to keep my own rules."

"Let me see it. . . . Oh, now, why not? What was the use of either of
us explaining if--if----?"

But Ovide smilingly restored the thing to its stack. "Now," he said,
"'tis Mr. Chester's logic that fails." Yet as he turned to a customer he
let Chester take it down.

"My job requires me," the youth said, "to study character. Let's see
what a _grand'mère_ of a '_tite-fille_, situated so and so, will do."

Ovide escorted his momentary customer to the sidewalk door. As he
returned, Chester, rolling map and magazine together, said:

"It's getting dark. No, don't make a light, it's your closing time and
I've a strict engagement. Here's a deposit for this magazine; a fifty.
It's all I have--oh, yes, take it, we'll trade back to-morrow. You must
keep your own rules and I must read this thing before I touch my bed."

"Even the first few lines absorb you?"